ABSTRACT
Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium L.) is known by several common names, such as pennyroyal, mint, and poleo. This plant also grows spontaneously in humid parts of Iran. Besides food products, pennyroyal essential oils can be used in detergents and soaps, dental products, and insect and tick repellent agents. Soxhlet extraction is a general and well-established technique that surpasses other conventional extraction techniques in performance, except for limited fields of application, for example, the extraction of thermolabile compounds. The essential oil contains a complex mixture consisting mainly of oxygenated monoterpenes such as menthone, pulegone, neomenthol, and 8-hydroxy-?-4(5)-p-menthen-3-one. The volatile oil obtained by steam distillation of M. pulegium is a light yellow liquid having a mint-like odor. Pennyroyal can be consumed as an antiflatulent, antitussive, diuretic, or anti-inflammatory. Pennyroyal oil has huge potential as an alternative to synthetic pesticides in stored cereal and crop protection, although the efficacy of these oil constituents is comparatively less than that of the synthetic pesticides.
